10 Podcasts I’m Listening to Right Now

I first blogged about my podcast addiction in 2014 (you can read about it here), and truth is, I’m still listening to most of the podcasts I mentioned then. I honestly don’t know how I’d live without them and they now form a part of many of my daily rituals; I listen when I’m getting ready in the morning, when I’m driving, when I’m waiting, when I’m trying to fall asleep. I feel a mixture of sadness and jealously when people tell me they don’t, or haven’t, listened to a podcast before. I’m sad for them because there’s a whole world out there that non-podcasters are missing out on, and jealous because there’s so much epic content for them to discover. I find myself regularly refreshing my podcast subscriptions, eagerly awaiting that little red notification dot that denotes a new episode is ready to listen to. I’ve discovered a couple o’ new channels over the years and these are my 10 favourites right now:

1. How to Be a Girl: Every. Single. Human. Needs to listen to this podcast; a real-life documentary of a mother’s journey through the world of transgender with her 8 year old daughter (born male). *Marlo Mack is the mom, producer and narrator of the show. She has the most beautiful voice and way with words and I think everyone should listen to this podcast to better understand the trials and tribulations Marlo and her kiddo have, and will continue to encounter. Your child might not be transgender, but what if his/her best friend is? Have you thought about how you’d navigate the friendship, the sensitivities, the secrecy? Probably not. So do yourself a favour and listen to this, it takes my breath away every time.
2. How I Built This: Guy Raz of TED Radio Hour (also so, so good!) recently started this spin-off podcast where he interviews the founders of today’s top companies. I love the real-life, 1st person accounts of how these businesses started and grew into the behemoths we know today. One often forgets that the origins of these brands were humble, scrappy, and many nearly didn’t survive. I loved Sara Blakely’s story behind Spanx and Jane Wurwand on Dermalogica. The problem with this podcast is it makes me want to get out of bed and hustle; not a good one to listen to if you’re trying to fall asleep.
3. Fat Burning Man: Abel James is the producer and narrator of this health, wellness and fitness podcast. He shot to fame when his Wild Diet beat all others in U.S. show My Diet is Better Than Yours. He interviews doctors and experts on a range of things health and wellness related. I’m following a ketogenic diet this year and this podcast has provided me with so much research and content. He has his own fat to fit story which I like and his voice is less annoying than most.
4. The Keto Diet Podcast: Leanne Vogel produces and narrates this podcast on all things ketogenic. I have to listen to this one sporadically because I’m not a fan of her voice, but I like her content when she’s not rambling or reading praise from her listeners.
5. Criminal: So, because I’m a voracious podcast listener I often exhaust the channels I listen to. I decided to dabble in a little true-crime to broaden my options and stumbled upon Criminal, produced and narrated by Phoebe Judge. What I like about Criminal is the content is broad (any crime from murder to white collar crime) and the crimes she reports on haven’t been sensationalised. Phoebe has the most incredible voice and I want her to read me bed-time stories.
6. Case File: Case File is the opposite of Criminal: it’s murdery, gory and completely sensationalised. It often scares my pants off and I’ve had a couple of nights where listening to this podcast has forced me to get out of bed and look for the robber I’m convinced I heard on my balcony. I still don’t know what I’ll do if I actually find one. Probably die of fright. The narrator of this podcast is anonymous, but he’s an Aussie and the Aussie accent is refreshing in the podcast world where everyone is a Yank. Do yourself a favour and listen to the Yorkshire Ripper series.
7. More Perfect: This podcast, brought to you by the guys behind Radiolab, is all about the American Supreme Court. Now I know that sounds boring AF, but it’s not. My only worry is why they haven’t added any new content since July last year and I hope they don’t cancel it because it’s sooooo good.
8. Radiolab: Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, this is where science meets culture and information sounds like music
9. This American Life: Ira Glass hosts this award-winning show comprising first-person stories that are touching, funny and surprising
10. The Moth: true stories told live and without any notes to standing-room-only crowds worldwide

Those final 3 are my old favourites, my trusty steeds that always deliver. I didn’t embellish because I wrote about them in my previous post. Miss Moss’ recommendation to listen to This American Life years ago is what got me hooked on podcasts. Thanks, Diana. I hope you’ve found this post useful and I hope that podcasts bring you as much happiness as they bring me; I learn something new every day and I love that. If you’re listening to any goodies right now, please comment and let me know about ’em.

How to download a podcast:

If you’re confused on where to start and how to listen, find a podcast app within the app store on your phone (iPhones come with one already, Android you’ll need to download one, I use CastBox). They’re all much of a muchness, really, so download one and then search for the channels I’ve listed above and press subscribe. Don’t worry, subscribing won’t download the podcasts and use your data, it just adds the podcast channel to your library, so to speak. If you click on an individual channel, it’ll then show you the episodes available to download or listen to. Podcast files are not actually that big, so don’t fret about file size and data usage. If you can, download them when you’re within WiFi and then listen to them at your leisure. If I’m listening at night I set my sleep-timer to 30 mins so that it doesn’t keep playing and I don’t lose my place. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, podcasts are free.

You’re welcome.

Misha xoxo